Bedugul & The Lake Bratan Area

Bedugul and The Lake Bratan Area

A small, friendly lakeside in the middle of the central highlands southwest of Gunung Catur, an hour’s drive (48 km) from Denpasar on the main road north (30 km) to Singaraja. Bedugul is the name given to a whole string of villages along the lake’s westrn shore. With its comfortable accomodation, wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables, lakeside views, blankets of fog, beautiful mystical quality, and an average temperature of 18-24 degree centigrade, Bedugul has been a popular weekend retreat since Dutch times. It’s a welcome change from Bali’s tropical humidity. Few tourists stop here. If you time your arrival for the late afternoon, you can practically have Ulun Danu Temple and the botanical gardens to yourself. Bedugul has a huge Muslim population, loudspeaker chanting starts blasting from the mosque at 04.30.

Serene Lake Bratan fills the ancient crater of long inactive volcano Gunung Catur, which tower over the lake. Over 1200 meters above sea level, Bedugul is nearly as cool as the Gunung Batur region only 20 impassable kilometers directly to the east. The cool ride up to this valley through terraced mountain vegetable gardens of cabbage, onion, and papaya is even more scenic than the ride to Penelokan.

Bedugul is a bit more relaxing and quiter especially in the hot season than Penelokan where there are too many grabby sellers. Like Penelokan, however, the local seem to be spoiled by the loads of package tourists (especially Japanese), and Bedugul is a strangely expensive place. It’s cheaper to stay in Lovina and charter a car or rent a motorcycle for a day trip.

The first entrance on the right as you near the top of the mountain is 100% commercial. In fact, there are so many domestic tourists swarming around touristy Hotel Bedugul that sitting quietly on the shore of the lake is imposible. Guides are available at the hotel, but their English needs a lot of work.

Across the lake area three 25 meter deep caves (Goa Jepang) dug out by Indonesian slave laborers for the Japanese during the war. It is said that after the caves were constructed the workers were all shot. The caves are accessible from the rim trail to Gunung Catur. You can walk there from Taman Rekreasi in about 45 minutes.

Don’t pass up the beautiful hikes along the exquisitely cultivated lakeshore and through the steep, jungle covered rolling hills and pine forests surrounding the lake. Bedugul and the mountain around it start to cloud over in the afternoon. Overcast skies or rain cause the area to become severely cold (down to 11 degree Celcius at night), so bring a sweater. A lovely desa called Kembangmerta, on the other side of the lake from Hotel Bedugul, is two km from the main road or just one km from Ulun Danu Temple. Dotting this whole hillside are holiday homes of rich Balinese.